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CHAMPION—May 12, 2014

        Mothers’ Day swept through Champion and the internet with all the grace of the dear ladies themselves.  The nurturing, kindness, guidance, support, insight, wisdom, humor, compassion, admonition and pure love that go along with their distinctive personas were acknowledged, applauded, and celebrated.  Favorite photos of Mothers and precious memories going all the way back were the order of a Champion kind of day.  The weather was perfect as well.

        Champions excited for the pictures of Bud Hutchison’s Trail ride will have to wait until Wilma gets her film developed and takes the pictures into the newspaper office.  Someone said that the riders were going to make a six hour ride this time and they had just left a little while earlier and so local photographers were called away to home chores and did not get to see their triumphant return.  Wilma is a great reporter, though, and her Champion friends are willing to wait.  There are, no doubt, many adventures ahead this summer for the intrepid Fox Trotting tail riders.

        Meanwhile, back at the Recreation of the Historic Emporium over on the North Side of the Square, the regular Wednesday bunch, spread out among the tables in the conversation lounge, had stories to tell.  A certain Mr. Stone was talking about goats and indicated that he could see no good reason to ever have such as that on a place.  Ethel Leach mentioned that some neighbors up on 76 Highway have miniature goats and that they are as cute as they can be.  The babies are just about ‘this’ big and they can run right through the fence.  She says they seem to stay out of the road, though, and scamper back through when a car comes along.  Stone said that when Paul Ullman was a boy he had four goats that had huge horns.  (He stretched his arms out to indicate how big the horns were.  They were big.)  A beau came to call on one of Paul’s sisters and while he was visiting the goats got up under his car and got stuck.  It took two hours to get them out.  They would jack the car up and the goats would try to stand up and they would get their horns caught up the frame of the car.  It was a mess.  He went on to say which sister it was who received the caller and who she later went on to marry.  Mr. Ray came in about that time with a dower expression because his sister had soundly trounced him again in their regular scrabble game.  He claims that she cheats and when he caught her she blamed it on her vision.”  “Does she have cataracts?” asked Ms. Leach.  “No, she drives a Buick,” he responded.  He went on to say that he reckons women are smarter because they have more time to study.  It went on like that including some protracted dog feeding ritual that is clearly headed toward becoming a legend of its own, though a person will not read about it here.  Jim the Wonder Dog came up in conversation.  He was an English Setter who was alleged to have a variety of remarkable abilities which included picking the winner of the Kentucky Derby six years in a row.  Jim died in 1937, and is buried in Marshall, Missouri, up east of Kansas City in Jim the Wonder Dog Memorial Park.  By this time Cowboy Jack had joined the idlers and they moved out to the veranda.  Chores at home called.  Wednesdays are wonderful in Champion.

        The Vanzant Community had a great yard sale on Saturday.  The Community building is proving to be just that and Champion neighbors are looking forward to a good potluck bluegrass jam there on Thursday.  The auction at the Drury store was well attended and neighbors are optimistic that something good will become of the place.

        Miss Elizabeth Heffern will have her birthday on May 15^th.  She is a Champion granddaughter. Champion grandmother, Linda Cooley, also has her birthday on Thursday.  On Friday Karen Griswold will be celebrated by her children and grandchildren and that day is special for a Champion mother who remembers her first born son with his bright blue eyes and his bright red hair.  Forty four years later he is still a joy!  It was a joy to get back to the bridge table on Friday.  There were adventures on the way that have worked out well and bird watchers in the group were able to get an early start on their birding activities Saturday.  How many species?  This is an amazing time of the year for birthdays, bridge and bird watching.

Recent travels brought one across the 1.6 mile Forth Bridge built between 1883 and 1890. It is a cantilever railway bridge that has daily traffic of 190 to 200 trains. It was the first major structure in Britain to be constructed of steel. Its contemporary, the Eiffel Tower, was built of wrought iron. From North Queensferry in Fife a person can look all the way across the inlet of the North Sea (the Firth) joining the Forth River to see the very inn, The Queensferry Inn, there in South Queensferry, Inchgarvie where the treacherous betrayal occurred that was so masterfully described in Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson.

        Linda’s Almanac from up at The Plant Place in Norwood says that the 17^th and 18^th will be good days for planting root crops.  Then again on the 22^nd and 23^rd plant root crops and do transplanting.  Those ‘barren’ days in between are good ones for weeding, working up garden plots, mulching, housecleaning, cooking, laundry, or for reminiscing and reading.  Recent travels brought one across the 1.6 mile Forth Bridge built between 1883 and 1890.  It is a cantilever railway bridge that has daily traffic of 190 to 200 trains.  It was the first major structure in Britain to be constructed of steel.  Its contemporary, the Eiffel Tower, was built of wrought iron.  From North Queensferry in Fife a person can look all the way across the inlet of the North Sea (the Firth) joining the Forth River to see the very inn, The Queensferry Inn, there in South Queensferry, Inchgarvie where the treacherous betrayal occurred that was so masterfully described in Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson.  A good book on the front porch resting up between garden chores is just what the doctor ordered.  For other ailments he recommends music.  “I had a home out in Texas.  Out where the bluebonnets grew.  I had the kindest old Mother.  How happy we were just we two.  Til one day the angels called her—that debt we all have to pay.  She called me close to her bedside, these last few words to say.”  What do you think she said?

        Bring the best advice your Mother ever gave you, your observations,  stories and good listening skills down to the broad inviting banks of Old Fox Creek and sit a spell in one of the world’s truly beautiful places—Champion!  Looking on the Bright Side!